Workmates coming into the Kingdom

Been praying diligently for my workmates every day. Well today one of the guys I work with told me he went to church with his gf yesterday! I was telling him about Julz, how she is unhappy and stressed not working now and he said that at church on Sunday they were talking about how often when we make the right decision about something, we go through this process that feels like we are dying inside, like everything is wrong in the natural.....and then he was talking about how a seed dies... and then he just got me a bit confused!

I think maybe the person's message might have about how a seed dies and is buried deep in the ground and life is breathed into it and then ultimately, it yields a harvest. Who knows, but he mumbled something about being brought up in the church and going every now and then. He said the message was taken from the book of John. Hmmmmm, interesting :-) I thought it was encouraging he suddenly started talking about church out of the blue!

Peace

Well Julz made it to church again today - second week in a row now. PRAISE THE LORD. So today she watched Angel and I up the front of the church in praise and worship, before following us down straight after when the kids were released. She let Angel play in Superkiz on her own, but she followed little Lars into the creche and stayed there for the whole service. I guess it's anointed there too.

In the car from her house to mine, then mine to church she complained almost non-stop about how incompetent Grunde is as a father and how stressed she is about now not having a job and how she doesn't know what to do with her life and how worried she is about finances. It grieved me to hear her. Then after church, she was so tired, I got her kids some lunch, then looked after them while she had a snooze on my couch. I prayed for her most of the time while juggling the kids. She woke up feeling much better, despite only sleeping about an hour and part of that time she was interrupted by her kids because they wanted to know why she was sleeping on the couch in the lounge room they play in.

Then I drove her home. Then I drove to Annette's house and she gave me a piece of KFC and some kiwi-fruit juice. I put my feet up and chilled for about 40 minutes. That was nice. Then I went home, changed into a new top that Annette bought me and joined her in the bookshop.

Despite all Julz' stress and worry, and all the issues she raised that grieved my spirit to hear, somehow I have a deep peace in my heart just knowing God will make it all work out. I don't know how, but somehow just getting Julz out of that contract and into church two weeks in a row has started a new season. I spent some time in prayer today praying for Grunde. In my mind, he is in church, set free and delivered out of the demonic influences he is under.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" - Psalm 37:4

"The Lord will perfect all that concerns me" - Psalm 138:8.

Love this kid

And how she loves her little 6 yr old friend Gabby!

HUGE BREAKTHROUGH IN PRAYER

Today has been a milestone breakthrough. My sis has been so sick and so close to a breakdown and I have been so worried about her and that was my main reason for stressing about going overseas. I just knew she was not coping. Her bf told me a week ago that she was taking five times the amount of anti-depressants prescribed to one person and this was every day. She has snapped at the kids and him and I many times and we all knew how unwell she was but didn't know how to help her. I have been praying so much and crying for breakthrough.

The mistake she made is she signed a five year contract to work four twelve hour days every week - a total number of hours that is more than a full-timer and especially harsh on a person with two kids under 3 years old who do not sleep at night. The contract she was on was extremely dodgy - it said that if she cut short her five year contract that she would have to pay at least 50% of her salary in a new job to the company who wrote the contract. They were forcing her to work unrealistic hours, see more patients than was legally acceptable and this was affecting the quality of care she could give to patients.

Praise the Lord He has given her immense favor today and delivered her out of the devil's hands. I asked her to ring me this morning before work, then told her I had left a set of keys in the meter box for her and that she should come over, turn the air-conditioner on and just relax. She told me she was meeting with the lawyers from the AMA today to discuss breaches to her work contract and seek advice. Well, I quickly shot off text messages to Tammy, Karen and Bev asking them to cover her in prayer to deliver her from this dodgy contract and set her free. Julz didn't think she could get out of the contract, but praise the Lord, the AMA found that it was flawed and not only got her out of it, but the practice will not be accredited on Monday and will suffer repercussions for threatening her and treating her like crap. They are insisting she take a few weeks break and will then get her a new job in Bassendean, which is outside the radius of the practice she has been working in. If she works too close to them, they can sue her.

She said she will cut her hours down to about 30 and focus more on the kids. This is a huge answer to prayer and makes me feel a whole lot better about leaving Perth soon. Glory to God!!!!

Early night

So after feeling the pain from cut-up ankles and reading some guy's article on the internet giving ten reasons to not buy a pair of doc martens, I have decided i'm going to sell them! Hopefully I will at least get my money back. I know they sell brand new for more than what I paid, so i'm going to advertise them for a bit more.

Feeling better than yesterday, but still really tired. Might take a sleeping pill today.

Have fought and fought and fought off the temptation to logon to facebook. It is addictive and annoying and I need to have a break! Two days straight now. Good job Aunty (as my cute little niece would say) :-)

blah

Not feeling that great today. Just too many things on over too short a time and totally knackered. My boots arrived yday. Well they look nice and the leather is soft and all, but they're really not all that comfy as I had expected from such an expensive pair of boots. I wish I had just been more reasonable now and bought a second-hand pair of lace-up boots. A fool and his money are soon parted. I guess I can try thicker socks. Today the walk from the train to work hurt my ankles, so I had to put some bandaids on :-(

Think i'll just head right to bed early.

Miracle day

Well today i went to collect Angelina to take her to church and praise Jesus, her mummy asked to come with me!!!! What a miracle and answer to prayer. She sat through praise and worship with Lars on her lap watching Angel play with her little friends, including beautiful little 10 yr old Teesha, the youth pastors' daughter who loves Angel and always comes to cuddle her. Then she walked downstairs with me and stayed with Angel in superkidz for the whole service. It wasn't church, but hey, it was an amazing start. Praise the Lord. He is answering my prayers. Totally made my day.

New doc marten boots :-)

Went to the doc marten shop in Mount Hawthorn yesterday to check out just how comfy these expensive shoes are. They cost about $250 brand new. Turns out, the original design is very comfy and easy to walk in, but I just thought they looked so daggy. The shoes just look so long and clunky. I was initially keen on the super shiny high gloss doc martens until I tried them on. They call them "patent" shoes. The super shiny material is actually very stiff and felt like putting hard plastic on my feet, despite the material apparently being leather. No thank you! I also didn't really like the laces very much - I would hate to have to sit down and waste time putting on and taking off my shoes every day. I wasn't really going to pay so much for them anyway - it was more just so I could suss them out, then buy them second hand. I just want one good pair of shoes for America.

Well, after hunting through eBay, I found a lovely pair of brand new doc marten zip-up boots. Wow, no laces to do up and they had pointy toes. They were brand new and on sale for $176.95 or best offer, so I tried my luck with an offer for $120. The seller came back with a counter offer for $145. I thought about it all day and looked at the photos many times. I decided that because I had just successfully sold all my hiking gear for $151 and Julz just handed me $100 after babysitting her two munchkins and taking them to church, that I would buy them.... so I just did! This was the blurb about them:

Dr Marten Boots never go out of fashion.

On sale here is a brand new pair, in the box, crying out to be set free!

This amazing pair is made of the softest leather, has a zipper for ease (no laces!) and have an unusual (for docs) pointed toe.
Putting them on is like putting on a second skin.

They measure 28.5cm in length an 10.5cm across the widest part of the foot

(please note this is the sole measurement only, and the pointed toe lengthens them slightly of standard docs).

UK 6 = AU Womens 8.

As an added bonus you get a

FREE pair of socks with these boots!

Stand out from the crowd, make them yours today!

Shipping details:

Box Size: 38.5cm x 31cm 12.5x cm

Weight:1.7kg

Here they are:

Triple cover

Feeling rather peeved today. Last Thursday I paid for HBF travel insurance which includes top cover health insurance for the entire time I am in US. Well, IHOP have made this silly decision to force international students to pay for health insurance from a US provider, despite some internationals already having health insurance because it is included in their travel insurance. They just said there is no option other than to pay. How insane. I spoke to HBF today, they said there is no option of having travel insurance without extensive health insurance included. They only offer one type of travel insurance to people going to the US and what i've got is it.

So much for shopping around and getting the lowest quote on travel insurance. Now the doubling up on health insurance means I will pay just as much as the flight centre quotes. It is so unfair.... seems so ironical that a place that promotes divine healing would force me to pay health insurance twice, which in effect means I have triple cover health insurance!

More suitcase pics

I am a promise

This is a song that I have heard many times lately because it is a kiddies song that was among many other worship songs for kids on a CD Annette gave me a copy of. For some reason, I just can't help wanting to hear this song again and again and again. I just love it. I feel like when I'm singing it, it is God saying to me that I am a promise to someone, the guy He has chosen for me, that God knows I am a promise and a great big bundle of potentiality! He speaks to me through kid's songs. So special. It's like I'm reliving my childhood and replacing the horrific experiences with beauty and special treasures from God.

"I am a promise
I am a possibility
I am a promise with a capital "P"
I am a great big bundle of potentiality

And I am learnin' to hear God's voice
And I am tryin' to make the right choice
I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be.

I can go anywhere that He wants me to go
I can be anything He wants me to be
I can climb the high mountains
I can cross the wide sea
I'm a great big promise you see!

I am a promise
I am a possibility
I am a promise with a capital "P"
I am a great big bundle of potentiality

And I am learnin' to hear God's voice
And I am tryin' to make the right choice
I'm a promise to be anything God wants me to be
Anything God wants me to be!"

My gift from God

Well I spent probably at least a couple of hours cleaning and decorating my new suitcase yesterday and this evening. Now that it has been disinfected, cleaned, aromatised, anointed with oil, committed to God and prayed over, it is a totally different suitcase to the neglected one someone treated like garbage and discarded. Gosh, it's a bit like the transformation God has done in my life!

I used T-shirt paints, liquid paper, super glue, some cute little material four-leaf clovers and ribbons to make it truly unique. The funny thing is, I had just written on one side "Ambassador 4 Jesus", "Citizen of Heaven" and "Child of the Most High God" when I started thinking about the prophecies I had been given years ago about travelling to many nations and being anointed to represent Jesus and make an impact wherever I go, testifying about what He has done in my life and praying in such a way that it has an effect. Then all of a sudden, the brand name of the suitcase hit me.

It's a "Diplomat" suitcase. I looked up the word "diplomat" in the dictionary and it says a "diplomat" (ˈdipləˌmat) is "an official representing a country abroad" or "a person who can deal with people in a sensitive and effective way". It was like God was speaking to me about what He wants me to be and to do. Confirmation really. The inside red lining in the suitcase has the word "diplomat" written all over it and then it is also tagged on the outside. Every good and perfect gift comes from God. I just know without a doubt God had already planned for me to have this suitcase and He must have had a big smile on His face knowing how much I would change it and love it. I feel like He picked it out just for me. Well I guess He has been watching everything I do and listening intently to my prayers. He knew I wanted a good suitcase even before I asked Him.

Thank you my dear Father in Heaven, the one who loved me even before I was born and chose a great future for me. He's a Father to the fatherless.

My new pre-loved suitcase

Well today I went suitcase hunting and I started at Red Dot, where some rather dodgy looking suitcases were selling for $59.95 for the largest size. Then I went to K-mart and they were selling some ok-looking ones for $55. Then I went op-shopping.

In the third op-shop, I found a large suitcase with potential. It had dual zips for each of the three pockets and was fully lined on the inside with satin-like red fabric. It had a choice of three ways of pulling it along on its wheels - firstly by a pull-out handle, secondly by a strap of material and thirdly, by a regular handle that unfortunately snapped when I lifted it up. Ooooops, but really, who needs three handles anyway!

Well it sure looked like a great quality suitcase, which would have cost a lot more than the Red Dot and K-mart options brand new, and the tag was for only $12. I talked to one of the staff and she said I could have it for $6 cos the handle was broken. What a bargain! So it was a done deal. As I carried it to the car, I realised it absolutely wreaked of what smelled like mould :-( I went and talked to another staff member and she said to just buy a can of Glen-20 and spray it all over, so I bought a can on the way home and used the whole can! I sprayed every little centimetre of the suitcase and then put an air-freshener on the inside of the suitcase and now, here it is, sitting in my lounge room smelling like flowers.

On the drive home, I was thinking about how my brain is still programmed in budget / saver mode and I am now formally in the highest income bracket and yet I am still acting like I earn peanuts. I guess that's what happens when you earn buggerall for three years.

Oh, before I forget, I must get some nail polish remover and wipe off the texta mark that says $12! hahahaha Well, that's money well spent. I am going to get some paint out soon and make it truly unique.

Confirmed

Well today my bank account had a severe beating. I paid $2,220 for the return airfare and $753 for travel insurance for six months from HBF. Then I picked up a small backpack from K-mart for $35 and some stuff to decorate the backpack with to make it unique for $12. That was $3020 all up! Fortunately, I got paid today. Thank God for my job.

The form I need for my visa is in Hong Kong!

So, the silly guy from IHOP who apparently mailed the form I need to get my visa, admitted that he only actually sent it on Monday this week, rather than on Tuesday last week! I had told the US Consulate staff I would bring it in on Friday last week or Monday this week ... but Monday came and went and I had nothing to give them. So I did a ring around and the switchboard lady from Australia post rang four post offices for me to help me find it, but of course to no avail.

Anyway, the guy sent me the tracking number and website to see where my I-20 is .... well it is now in Hong Kong! Pretty amazing tracking system. I'm impressed by the system, definitely not by this IHOP guy though.

Hooray

I managed to get that pretty little room back after accepting it, then declining it, then asking for it back. Oh I am so grateful. Praise the Lord. I am not really a cat person, but hey, I would prefer to work on my issues with cats rather than my issues with that other potential housemate. She just sounded so awful! She is obviously someone with a melancholic personality who has people issues. She wanted to maintain a home environment "conducive of study" and expressed her utter dislike of houses crammed with many people. The IHOP houses only have one person per bedroom and five people in a house. Try living in Mexico with nine girls in the same bedroom and 23 people in the house!

No thank you lady, I think I would die if I had to live with you and my time in KC would be a nightmare. Plus the rent was so much more than what I am now going to be paying. I really liked the sound of Linda though, so incredibly friendly and sweet in her emails, so I decided to sow $300 into her new paypal account to bless her..... kinda funny cos I had just told her the reason I was changing my mind was because the airfares and insurance were unexpectedly high so my decision to rent the other place would save me money - then I go sow money into her ministry!

In other news, I just sold my car cover. I am stoked. I had listed it on eBay for $15 and it had one bid. An older lady called Doreen who works at Bunnings in Joondalup came to check it out today and offered me $20 cash, so I took her cash and cancelled my auction. Hooray! I am stoked :-)

Sunshine coming

Feeling a bit sad tonight. Every now and then I stop and think about each member of my family and my heart just breaks. I can never really explain it fully to anyone but God cos He was the only one who witnessed every minute of every day of my life.

I am so grateful that God is in my life and the things that I see are temporary and subject to change. Because of the covenant I have with God, my family and I have divine favor and divine protection. Breakthrough is coming. My family will be delivered. Though they are not innocent, they will be delivered by the purity of my hands. Though their sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow. God is no respector of persons, so what He has done in other families, He will do in mine.

Please Lord let this room still be free

Ok, so the more I talk to my potential housemate, the less I want to live with her :-( She just sounds like she has the most dead personality ever. Then today the owner sent me her bank account details in America and told me to deposit the whole lot of rent for six months into her bank account within the next few weeks. I said I was happy to pay rent in advance, but I didn't mean the whole lot for six months! Far out, and what if I move in and I don't even like the lady? In addition, the owner said there are fees attached to depositing money into her bank account and then there's likely to be fees on my end too :o(

I was doing my maths today and I could save $780 if I live in the other house that is closer to IHOP and cheaper, and it's the same deal more or less. Well there would be three of us living in the house, the owner who I looked up on FB and another girl and I. The owner is about 50 something and has her own bathroom, so I would just share the second bathroom with one person and have my own room.

This is the room - oh so pretty!